Here’s the scoop on the mayor’s wedding

Georgette Braun

Saturday

Jul 28, 2007 at 12:01 AMJul 28, 2007 at 8:56 PM

Rockford Mayor Larry Morrissey’s August wedding to Stacy Hedrick will take place in town, but the couple will celebrate their marriage at a reception in Galena, and they’ll leave the state for their honeymoon.

Morrissey and Hedrick, who have been dating 3-

1/2years, will tie the knot at St. James Catholic Church in a traditional ceremony. Each will have two attendants, and Hedrick’s daughter, Seanna, will be part of the wedding party. A rehearsal reception will be at the Irish Rose in Rockford.

Morrissey has asked that to protect the couple’s privacy, the dates of the ceremony and reception not be published, nor the name of the place where the reception will be held.

But he said in an interview with the Rockford Register Star this week that the couple is expecting about 300 guests for the reception. He would not comment on whether the couple had invited City Council members.

"It’s not a political affair, it’s an intimate one for family" and close friends, he said.

The reception will be in banquet rooms with floor-to-ceiling windows that overlook a secluded setting. A group that plays big-band-style music will perform. Cheap Trick guitarist Rick Nielsen, a longtime friend of Morrissey’s, has been invited, but it’s unclear whether he’ll attend.

The couple wanted the reception to be out of town so it wouldn’t feel like a political event for Morrissey, he said. And they like Galena, a city with gently rolling hills where they got engaged. The couple will honeymoon out-of-state in a "fairly remote location to gain some peace and quiet," Morrissey said.

Morrissey said he’s "lucky," "fortunate" and "honored" to be marrying Hedrick. Hedrick couldn’t be reached in time for deadline for this story to comment about the pending marriage or her bridal dress.

It’s the first marriage for both, and the first time in at least 50 years that a Rockford mayor has married while in office.

Hedrick of Rockford attends Northern Illinois University in DeKalb and is studying to become a speech and language pathologist. The couple met through a cousin of Morrissey’s when Hedrick worked at Lino’s in Rockford.

So, what was the bachelor party like? Morrissey said he and a few friends golfed and hung around a campfire one day and went to a Chicago Cubs game the next, but they didn’t go crazy. "You could say I did nothing that would be uncharacteristic of the mayor’s demeanor," he said.